A Galapagos Tortoise at The Ranch Manzanillo Preserve Wood Print

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On our tour of the Galapagos with REI Adventures, we visited The Rancho El Manzanillo Preserve on Santa Cruz Island. In the Santa Cruz Island highlands, areas of heavy Galapagos tortoise concentrations occur. One such locale is the Rancho Manzanillo. Recognized internationally for its conservation effort to save the Galapagos tortoise. This is a remarkable place where these creatures are everywhere and so easily photographed. We even saw a pair mating (wasn't much of a photo though).

I love to tell stories. About twenty years ago I had my first freelance travel article accepted by a magazine. Much to my surprise, the magazine expected photos along with words. I had not taken any during the preliminary work for my article. I drove back to the site and took the photos for the article with my little Olympus digital camera. The article was published with those very amateur photos. In time, I bought an Olympus OMD-EM5, a great camera for nature and travel photographers and discovered that I enjoyed telling stories with pictures more than I did with words. The last twenty year have been an incredibly exciting time as resources for photographers have exploded. I have been lucky enough to have some great teachers along the way...